Everything I Learned From Being Around The Top 0.1%

Most people think the top 0.1% got there by overworking everyone else. More hours, less sleep, relentless grind. I used to think that, too, until I actually got into these rooms. Over the last 20 years, I've sat face to face for hours with many people that you only read about in headlines. From Elon Musk inside a rocket factory to Richard Branson in his private island, Tony Robbins in Fiji, Ariana Huffington, the Dalai Lama, Bill Gates in his home in Washington. And what I found across every single conversation is that they think in uniquely different ways. Their operating system is different from what school often tells us to pay attention to. But it often comes down to these nine things. Nine principles that have nothing to do with hustle. In fact, the real secret runs almost directly against it.

So these nine principles aren't taught anywhere. Not in school, not in any business book, not in any podcast. And once you see them, you cannot forget them.

In 2013, I asked Elon Musk what I thought was the dumbest question of my life. I said, "Elon, if we could put you in a blender and essentially blend you down to your core essence, Elon, what would that be?" Elon laughed at the absurdity question. And then he gets quiet and he tells me this. He said the core essence of Elon is this. I can take a lot of pain. He went on to share this quote. Entrepreneurship is like crawling into a dark abbis and chewing glass. And he said with his usual Elon chuckle and that's what I felt a lot of my life but I could push through that pain.

Now he shared some stories. In that same conversation, he said there was a time when he was young and he really wanted a job. He read about the company Netflix. So he walked into their office with a resume thinking back then he said he was young and stupid thinking that that was how you get a job. You just stay in the office in the reception room. He waited and waited and waited. No one came to greet him. No one came to ask him for an interview. He sat there with his resume. A young Elon. And when no one came, he said, "Screw it. I'll just start my own company." That started him on his journey that's about to make him with the SpaceX IPO, the world's first trillionaire. But as he went through that journey, there was unbelievable pain. And I got to hear much of this pain directly because I produced a program with Elon's mother, May Mask.

The first principle is this. You need to have high pain tolerance. Many people back away from pain. Many people shrink in pain. Now pain tolerance doesn't mean that you push yourself till you collapse. It means that you are devoted to what it takes to help you grow. I do not believe in going through pain to build a business because I am not going to sacrifice my health or my relationships for money. I want money but I value my relationships and I absolutely value my health. But what I learned from Elon helps me when it comes to those days when I have to put in a 12-hour day. When those days when I have to go to the gym and I'm determined to push my body to the point where I can barely walk out of that gym, that is pain that makes you stronger. And when you can learn to tolerate that pain, you develop an unbelievable resilience in life. Most people shrink away from pain. the greatest they push through pain. A great gym instructor told me every time you are pushing on a weight and you feel that pain ordinary people give up. But the people who really build muscle they push through the pain and you can tolerate pain in life in business. That's when you rise up to the next level of whatever game you're playing.

Okay. So some of you might be wondering great vision. How do I apply this in my life? Well, I gave you the gym example. That's one. But the second example, I'm going to bring up Elon again. So Elon was interviewed on the Neil Degrasse Tyson podcast. And Neil asked Elon, "How did you get so courageous, willing to take all of these bets?" When Elon sold PayPal, he got 200 million. Rather than buy a yacht or retire to an island, he decided to put all of that money on two risky bets, SpaceX and Tesla.

Well, Elon's response to Neil deGrasse Tyson was this. Elon said, "When I was a kid, I decided to try an experiment. The experiment was, could I live on $1 a day, and he found that he could he could shower at the YMCA. He could sleep on the floor of his office. He could survive on ramen noodles that he bought from the cheapest grocery store he could find." Elon said, "When I found that I could survive on $1 a day, I realized I'm safe. I'm good." And he said, "That gave me the courage to really push through."

What challenge can you give yourself? Whether it's training for a marathon, whether it's pushing through that final rep in the gym, whether it's attempting to survive on a low budget to train yourself to understand just how much you can go. The beauty about these challenges are you always inevitably find that you are way stronger than you think. When you can push through the pain, you often come out on the other side much stronger than before.

Now, principle number two, and I learned this from both Elon and Naveen Jane. I'll talk about Naveen in a moment, but I want to continue with this Elon story. That day in 2013 at the SpaceX headquarters in California in Hawthon, Elon continued sharing with us some of his insights. SpaceX was still a young company, as was Tesla. Remember, this was 13 years ago. But he said something. One of the people in our group asked him, Elon, why are you even doing this? This is crazy risky. And this is how he explained it to us. He said, "Listen, if humankind doesn't back itself up on a different planet, one asteroid strike to Earth could wipe us all out." And that's why he says, "Just like you need to back up your hard drive in the cloud, we need to be able to back humankind up on a different planet."

He then put up a picture of Mars and he spoke about Mars and he spoke about his vision. He said 10 years out to transport millions of people to establish a colony on Mars. Now 10 years out would have been 2023. Elon would have missed that timeline. But he was honest about that. That day in 2013, he says, "And I know I'm optimistic and I know I have a reputation for missing timelines." And then he laughed. He did miss the timeline, but one cannot argue about his great why. His why was save humanity in case of an asteroid strike. By the way, just in case you're wondering, the odds of an asteroid actually striking Earth and causing an extinction level event is about 1 in 30,000. So, this is not like a tiny low risk. It could happen. Elon's motivation is to back up the human species and colonize another planet. This why is a reason that a couple of years ago in a study in Silicon Valley when they asked engineers what are the companies you most want to work for? Number one and number two was SpaceX and Tesla. Elon starts with why. He doesn't speak about work. He speaks about a mission.

Now another person I learned this from is Naveen Jane. Naveen Jane started a company called Volume. It's a gut microbiome testing company. Navenas had many, many multi-billion dollar companies under his belt. And I was fortunate one day in 2023 to be invited to come and spend time with him on his private island that he shares with Richard Branson. And I asked him, Lavine, you are in your 60s. You've started and founded multiple companies. You have a freaking private island with Branson and you're doing it all again. Why? And he explained this to me. He said, "Vision, with the technology that we're building, do you know that we will be able to just from a swap of saliv throat cancer in someone? We can help make illness optional. We can create a world in America where you never have to become sick. It all starts with being able to measure what's going on in your gut. And that's why even in my 60s I'm building this company and I'm dedicating my life to it." I respected that idea so much I ended up investing in bio. Naveen Jane is another entrepreneur that shows that when you start with why nothing is impossible.

Now one of the side effects of Naveen's company is this because of how passionate he is about his mission. When this man is on stage he wows people. when he speaks about his mission, the best scientists, the best engineers want to join him. And Naveen told me this. He said, "Vision, many entrepreneurs start with a goal. They should always make their goal ridiculously big. But they're afraid to make it big because they think they're going to fail. But the thing is, when you make your goal big, when you make your goal something that can transform the human race, you make it easier, not harder."

So I asked Naveen, "Well, what do you mean?" Naveen says, "You make it easier because the best people, they don't want to work for small companies with small missions. The best people want to change the world. And when they see you're playing at that level, they flock to you. And when the best people come, the best ideas come. And when the best ideas come, the investors come and then you can tell the investors, we don't need your money. We've got great people already." I found that really interesting. Naveen's argument that the bigger your mission, the easier it gets. I love this about Naveen. I asked him to create a Mind Valley program on this topic called the power of boldness. It's one of the programs we are most proud of. Boldness matters. And to be bold, you need to understand your why and use it as a rallying call for customers, for employees, for investors.

Now, let's say you're not building a world changing company. Let's say you're building a simple t-shirt company with beautiful t-shirts where human beings can pay to get their pets faces on a t-shirt. How do you apply this philosophy? Well, it's simple. Are you doing it for money or are you doing it for something beyond money? Because if it's just money, I can tell you it's going to be harder. They're going to be days when you're not going to want to wake up in the morning and push through getting that business launched. It's going to be harder to motivate employees. But if your why is you genuinely care about animals and you want to help in your small way create a world where owner and pet are closer together, where people get to celebrate dog ownership and cat ownership or ferret ownership, whatever pet you're into, when you create a world where you can bring people and animals together, that makes you happy. That becomes your mission. And the beauty of that is you will start attracting employees and customers who resonate with that mission. This is why even if you are simply building a t-shirt company, having a mission that is beyond just money matters. In my book, The Quote of the Extraordinary Mind, I dropped this quote. Business people do it for the dollars, but real entrepreneurs, they do it to push humanity forward. What are you doing that will create a positive impact on humanity?

The third idea is this. So you got to learn to push through pain. You got to have a mission. The third idea is an interesting dance between both and it comes from Richard Branson. I got an opportunity several times to spend time on Neker Island with Richard Branson in various mastermind groups. And in this time there were about 3 hours that I had one-on-one with Branson. And during one of those moments, I asked him, "Richard, you've started multiple companies. You employ 50,000 people. What is the best advice you can give me?" And I remember that night. It was a beautiful starry night. We were dressed as pirates. Richard was organizing a pirate party. This man loves to party. He loves to have fun. And this is what he told me. I'm going to read it out to you because I want to get this right. He said, "It's all about finding and hiring people who are smarter than you, giving them really good work, and then getting out of the way so that you can focus on the bigger vision."

Now, notice how what Richard is saying ties so greatly to point number two. Richard was dyslexic. He had difficulty reading. He never considered himself a a particularly brilliant man in different areas, but what he was good at, and he said his dyslexia gave him this ability, is seeing the big picture. So he would hire people smarter than him, put them on these projects while he stayed at the vision level. Principle number two. Principle number three is essentially what Branson is advocating. Hire great people and get out of the way. Give them the vision, give them the direction, give them the OKRs, and then let them do their job.

Now Elon does it a little bit differently. He goes deep department by department by department in his companies. He's famous for talking about how every week in every company he picks the biggest constraint and he goes deep with the team and solves it. That's good too. But Elon is also always playing at the vision level. Richard always playing at the vision level. So which as you build a company the bigger your company grows it doesn't mean you can't go in and code with your team or design with your team but you got to ensure that the company's vision is expanding is evolving especially in today's age when so many things are changing so fast.

Another person who was really good at doing this was Bill Gates and I know this because in 1998 I was one of the 1% of computer science graduates in America that was offered a lucrative ative internship at Microsoft. This was the Microsoft of 1998 when it was the hottest company in the world and I became an intern that summer while I was a junior at the University of Michigan.

Now what happened is Bill Gates and this is what blew me away. The richest man in the world invited all us interns to his home for dinner. There were about 50 to 70 of us and Bill Gates was there in his gorgeous home on Lake Washington grilling hamburgers. This is the richest man in the world grilling hamburgers and serving it to a bunch of interns. And back then I was wondering how the heck does he justify? Couldn't he's a billionaire. Couldn't he pay someone to do it? What about like like ordering in from McDonald's? But it was only later that I understood what Bill Gates was doing. He was applying the same rulebooks. Bill Gates was a visionary. He was building a great company, but he was applying that same Richard Branson rule book. He was doing everything he could to get the best minds into Microsoft. And then he was taking a servant leader approach, showing that you are precious to me. I am going to personally cook your hamburger patty, serve it to you, get to your know your name, invite you to my gorgeous house because you matter. That idea never left me. That idea never left me. The way Bill Gates treated even interns later on when I started my company, I applied that idea to the office space. As I brought people to come and work for Mine Valley, I knew I didn't want them to just work in an ordinary office space. So, I created a gorgeous office space that later made Inc. Magazine top 10 most beautiful office in the world because those tiny touches matter. Set the vision. Bring great people in. Get the heck out of the way.

The fourth principle I learned from the legendary hypnotist Paul McKenna. Paul and I became friends over the years. And Paul McKenna, if you live in the UK, you know this man. He's the number one non-fiction writer in the United Kingdom. Paul McKenna's hypnotherapy has changed the lives of millions of people and in the UK he is frequently in the news. Paul and I were having dinner one day and I was debating getting a gorgeous apartment in London. The problem was this apartment was way beyond my budget. So as I sat down with Paul, Paul shared a thought with me. He said, "Vision, write down the cost of this apartment rental monthly. Now, write down what's your budget. What's the gap?" And the gap was about £5,000. This apartment was £5,000 more than what my budget told me I should pay. Paul said, "Well, listen. Most people are going to look at those £5,000 and they're going to cross it off and say no. But you're smarter than that. This is what I want you to do." He said, "Forget safe and risky. Don't think like that. instead look at upside downside. So the downside is it's £5,000. But Vision, what is unique about that apartment? And I said, well, this apartment has got this amazing space for filming. It's also got this stunningly massive dining room with an antique Chinese table that can sit 12. Paul says, "Uh-huh. Okay. If you could use this space for filming and you could produce just one extra YouTube video in this gorgeous space a month, would that be worth 5,000?" And I realized, well, yeah. He said, 'If you could host intricate dinner parties and bring in founders from different industries, maybe find new companies to invest in, new collaborators, would that be worth $5,000? And I go, "Yeah." And he goes, "Well, you can do both. So, for the extra 5,000, you're already telling me you're getting $10,000 worth of value." I thought about it, and he was right. I was looking at it from the sheer rule of this breaks my budget. But McKenna showed me how to think upside downside. Admit the downside, but look at what is the upside of having the slightly greater space.

Now this type of thinking can be extremely useful for entrepreneurs. I want to go back to a story about Branson. When Richard Branson was traveling with his wife in the early days, he was trying to fly back to the UK from the Caribbean and what happened is that the flights were all fully booked. Flights were cancelled and there was no way to get back. So he decided to spend some money hiring a chartered flight. So he grabbed some money together, went to hire a chartered flight, but he found out that it was way too expensive. He couldn't afford it. So he goes back to the airport in the waiting room with all of these distress like grumpy travelers cuz the flight to London's been cancelled. And he says, "Guys, if all of you pay me, I'm going to put this money together and get a plane for us and get us all back to the UK." And that's how he was able to get back to the UK. But that simple inconvenience sparked an idea. It allowed him to understand that he could collect money in advance, hire a chartered flight and then get himself back but also make a tiny bit of profit. That model became the model that he used to launch his airline Virgin Atlantic.

When Branson was launching Virgin Atlantic, an idea that sparked from that moment with the charter flight, he called up Boeing to buy a plane and Boeing said, "There's no way we are selling someone like you a plane. You have no experience." So Richard said, "Well, could I rent a plane? Do you have any planes just sitting around on the runway waiting for someone to rent them? Let me rent it for a month." Boeing said, "Sure." And Richard said, "Can I pay you at the end of the month?" Boeing said, "Yes." Richard now had his plane, but he had a big bill at the end of the month. All he had to do right now is find the upside to this downside. And the upside is I've got a freaking plane that I can do anything with for 30 days. Let's sell tickets. So, in his classic PR stuntman mode, he was able to create an airline, Virgin Atlantic, sell a bunch of tickets, make a profit, pay the Boeing rental, and that's how his airline took off. Today, a multibillion business. All because what most people would see as a downside, a big payment on a plane at the end of the month, he turned into an upside. So, what are the downsides of what you're doing that could potentially be an upside? Apply McKenna's tactic. Is the downside reckless? If the answer is no, then don't obsess about the downside. Focus on what you can do with the upside. Poor thinking obsesses about the downside. Great entrepreneurs, they stay in the positive mode and they look at the upside.

Principle number five comes from the Reverend Michael Beckit. Michael Beckit is the reverend of the Agape Church in Los Angeles. This is a multi-enominational religious institution that teaches ideas from every religion. And Michael is an incredible speaker. And one of the most incredible things about Michael is this. He is the most featured person in modern personal growth and spiritual documentaries. No one else in the modern era is featured as much as him in these movies and documentaries. And it's because of how he speaks and his presence. So, I've learned a lot from Michael over the years while being in the audience, in his church, but also through one-on-one conversations. And one of the most interesting ideas I learned from Michael is this. Failure is the curriculum.

Michael says there are two ways we grow. We grow through Sattorii and we grow to Kensho. These are Zen terms. So, in Zen philosophy, life is about growth. But growth can come through kensho which is growth from pain. But growth can also come through sattorii which is growth from awakening. Now growth from pain might be a business fails but you pick yourself up. You understand what to do and what not to do. So your next business is stronger. Kensho or growth from pain might be you mistreat your body. You end up in hospital, but there in that hospital bed, you make an oat to yourself to eat better, to exercise more, to treat your body like a temple. I know, I've been there. Kenshaw might be a relationship ends, but you grow from that and you start to understand what it takes and what behaviors you need to change to really create a thriving relationship. That's growth from pain. Sattorii is growth from awareness. Growth from awareness comes when you listen to a podcast when you're studying on a platform like Mind Valley, when you're reading a book, when you have inspiring friends or mentors that help you gain realizations. Kensho or Sattorii. But the point is growth. Growth is the curriculum. Failure helps you grow as much as awakening. So Sattorii is wonderful but not everyone is always going to get insights from the book they read. Kensho is often the best way to help you grow.

Now an MBA professor who mentored me Sri Kumar Rao one of the greatest MBA professors in the world said something similar. He said Vision you know the most important thing we need to teach in MBA programs. I asked what? And he says, "American MBA schools need to teach this. Your business is not about your business." And I go, "What do you mean?" He goes, "Your business is about are you growing? If your business hits a billion dollars, doesn't matter. Did you grow? If your business fails, doesn't matter. Did you grow?" As long as you're growing, you're good. Your business is nothing more than the greatest vehicle for your personal growth. That's why being a founder is so valuable. But when you fail, when something doesn't go right, the only thing you got to look at is not the failure, but what did you learn? Did you grow? And as long as you're growing, you're winning. You're gaining. You're developing an edge. When you reframe failure into opportunity for growth, the Kensho opportunity for growth, now you become unstoppable. By the way, if you enjoyed this idea of growth, check out my video, the three most important questions. This is an exercise that I designed that has been retweeted by organizations like the American Management Organization to help you identify the best ways in which you need to grow in your life. You'll find it on this channel. Don't forget to hit subscribe.

The next idea in the next story comes from Ariana Huffington. I got to sit down with Ariana in her home in LA several years ago. And as we chatted, she told me the story that led her to start her health and wellness company, Thrive. She'd been working crazy hard on Huffington Post, and she started neglecting her health. And one day, as she came back from a long day in the office, she collapsed, hit her head against a table, and lay on the floor bleeding. She realized that for the longest time, she had been neglecting her own inner game, her health, her wellness. Ariana sworn never to do that again. She started the company called Thrive. She started going deep into meditation, into health, into wellness. Today, Thrive is a massively successful company. And Ariana learned that lesson the painful way. As Michael Beckwood should say, Kensho, your outer game depends on your inner game. The world that you're building, the business that you're creating is a function of the inner state you're in. Or another way of saying it is this. Your business will grow to the extent you grow. Listen, if you're on the ground bleeding, you're not going to have the capacity to grow your business. So, are you sacrificing sleep? Are you sacrificing gym? Are you failing to eat well because you're too busy? Well, you've just fallen down an awful trap. The most important rule to understand is this. You have to take care of yourself. Sleep is non-negotiable. Healthy eating is non-negotiable. Exercise is non-negotiable.

Going back to a story from Branson. I was in Neker Island once and uh Branson at a late night 10 p.m. party challenged all of the founders in the room to wake up at 6:00 a.m. and swim with him. From Neker Island to a neighboring island, he also owned Mosquito. The space between that island 5 km. A few hands went up, but most people decided there's no way they're waking up at 6:00 a.m. and swimming 5 km across open water. Now, I decided that, okay, I was a photographer. This was an amazing opportunity. I had to get there with my iPhone and film this. So, at 6:00 a.m., there I was. The sun was rising. It was gorgeous. A few straggling entrepreneurs slightly nervous for getting in the water with Branson. And Branson forgets his goggles. So he turns to his assistant and he goes, "Are my goggles around?" And she goes, "Well, I I'd have to run back up to the house and get them. It's going to take me 20 minutes." Branson, who's in his 60s, says, "Oh, don't bother. I'll just backstroke." This man in his 60s is about to backstroke 5 kilometers. Now, at that point, I'm thinking, I'm not even a good swimmer, but listen, I'm 40 and it's embarrassing if I cannot do this. I had my goggles, so I decided to get in the water with Branson. I was impressed at how a man in the 60s was able to keep his body that sharp. Long story short, Branson made it 5 km backstroke. Many of the entrepreneurs made it. Branson did this not because he was trying to prove a point. He did this because we were there to learn how to think like a billionaire. And one of the things he was trying to express to us is this. Billionaires, even when it's painful, will wake up at 6:00 a.m. And billionaires, at least his style of billionaire, will take such good care of your health that even in your 60s, you can backstroke 5 km across open water. That experience changed my life. I started treating my body in a different way. I started training in the gym in a different way. I'm going to be in my 60s in a decade or so, and I want to make sure I age gracefully, just like Branson.

The next principle comes from Dave Asprey, the founder of Bulletproof Coffee, the creator of the term biohacking. If you look up the word biohacking, Dave's name is the name on the dictionary as the man who coined this term and kind of created this movement. Now, when I first started getting close to Dave and he had me on his podcast, I spoke about intuition. This was 2016. My book, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, had just come out. And I got slammed on Amazon by Dave's followers because they believed intuition was not real. Spiritual was beyond biohacking. But over the subsequent years as evidence came out, the evidence showed that your spirituality, your intuition, your ability to master your mind are some of the most important things for longevity. I knew that, Dave knew that, but we couldn't speak about it publicly in 2016 without getting slammed. But in that same year, 2016, I attended an experimental event with Dave Asprey. Today that event is called 40 years of Zen. It's a neurotraining facility that Dave now runs where you train your brain to function like the brain of monks who have spent 40 years in meditation and the people who flock this facility are billionaires are entrepreneurs because it cost $15,000 for 5 days. I went there with Dave in the early days when he was first exploring this technology and this is what we learned. We learned that you can train your brain to actually perform like a monk by using bio feedback to repatent in your brain the exact patterns that we see in a monk's brain. Now for those of you who are brainwave nerds, it's high alpha amplitude and left right brain coherence. But here's the funny thing. The secret to getting there is not what you think. It's not hours of chanting or hours of meditation. It's practicing forgiveness. It's practicing this one spiritual act, forgiveness. As you go into these altered states at the neurotraining facility, what you're meant to do as you go into this neurotraining facility, you go into this egg-like structure. Your brain is wired up to machines. And what you're meant to do nonstop is forgive yourself for every dumb mistake you've made. And forgive everyone who ever hurt you. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive until your soul feels completely clear, until you basically have no negative charge towards anyone. This is bizarre because this is a spiritual practice that saints have been speaking about that Christ spoke about and it turns out that the spiritual practice is incredible for optimizing you as an entrepreneur. Today we know the science. Your brain goes into a more resilient state. When your brain is more resilient, you can push through busy days. You can push through long hours while staying calm. And this is the secret. Calm when you life is so complex. Most people never get to be founders or entrepreneurs because it is a freaking complex job and you got to juggle so many multiple things. But when you can train your brain to have this high level of resilience, calm in the storm, you're able to navigate that. And it turns out the way to do that is a spiritual practice called forgiveness. I'm going to be releasing a video soon on the exact forgiveness protocol that Dave Asprey and his neuroscientists at 40 Years of Zen recommend. The exact protocol. And I'm going to share this exact protocol with you. And I ask one thing, subscribe to this channel because that forgiveness protocol is coming. And by the way, this forgiveness protocol doesn't just make you a kinder, better person. It increases your resilience. And this has been scientifically proven. It makes your brain more like the brains of monks who have spent decades in meditation.

Now, this principle is extremely counter to what many people are going to tell you and it comes from Peter Dandis. Peter Dandis is the man who helped create private space travel. He created the X-Prise Foundation and through the X-Prise Foundation, he helped create an incentivized prize to reward $20 million to anyone who could create the world's first plane that could take you into orbit and down. I got to know Peter because I joined the innovation board of the X-Price. And I was fascinated by the sheer amount of businesses that Peter was involved with. So one day I asked him, "Peter, do you believe in multitasking?" Because everyone I hear says focus on one thing. And this is what Peter told me. He said, "Vision, some of the greatest entrepreneurs I know do not focus on one thing. How many companies does Richard Branson have? Steve Jobs, he was CEO of Pixar and Apple at the same time." Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. So this idea that you have to focus on one thing, it applies to most people. that there is a breed of founder that actually does better when they focus on multiple things. So don't buy into that focus on one thing philosophy.

He went on to say that he's the type of founder that thrives when you multitask. I know I'm that type of founder as well. If I focus on one thing, this is what happens. I start getting so deep in that one thing, I get bored. I also end up stepping in too deep. I frustrate my employees. I end up getting obsessed in that one thing. I need multiple projects. Currently, I'm running five different companies. And I love it. And my team loves it because they get to go deep with me in different things without me being obsessed over just one tiny thing. So I want you to know this. As we are moving into an age of AI enabling entrepreneurship, this ability to multitask becomes an advantage even bigger than before. Let me give you an example why we're entering an age where you can get on a tool like Claude and ask Claude to build you something. You can literally code your own app into existence. But here's the issue. Claude can go run of its own code a particular feature for your app, but that's going to take 10 to 20 minutes. If you're focused on one thing, what do you do in that meantime? Are you going to be watching TV? Are you going to be reading a book? Now, what I like to do is I like to have three different screens on my computer. The first screen, I'm using Claude to write. The second screen, I'm using Claude to code. The third screen, I'm using Claude to think about strategy. I actually focus on three different things simultaneously. Screen to screen to screen. Now that's my founder DNA. It makes me significantly more productive. If I'm focused on just one thing, I break my flow. I get impatient while waiting for those 5 to 20 minute cycles for claw to actually output something. So this new era of work actually gives you the ability to do that. And I believe Peter Dandis' advice doesn't apply to everyone. But we've been so told that we need to focus on one thing that many people maybe you that have an advantage to multitask often limit yourself. Don't do that. If you need to focus on one thing, great. That's good for you. If you need to focus on multiple things, that's good, too.

Principle number nine is a lesson I learned from the Dalai Lama. In 2009, I was invited to speak in Calgary on a stage when the Dalai Lama was visiting Canada. I was dearly honored to share the stage with the Dalai Lama. And after the Dalai Lama's talk, I was given a private audience with him in a room of fellow speakers. There I was in this beautiful room with the Dalai Lama and many other monks in his entourage. I was there with my then wife Christina. Christina and I were so blessed and honored to be there. And when it came time to ask the Dalai Lama a question, Christina was selected. Her question was this. How is it possible to be happy when we see so much misery in the world these days? The Dalai Lama's response was this. Well, who can you help if you are unhappy? You must be happy first. And that is a really powerful idea. It's not just Buddhist philosophy. Turned out science validates this. See, there's a famous book by Shaun Akre called The Happiness Advantage. Sean is a researcher at Harvard and he in his book did multiple studies that show that when you are happy, you simply do better. Salespeople who are positive are 55% better at closing a sale. Doctors who are happy are 19% better at diagnosing patients. Kids who are happy do better in their exams. There's another book by Shazad Shamin called PQ, positivity quotient. Just like we have an IQ, we have a positivity quotient, which is how much happiness we can hold on to even when life is hard. And in his book, Shazad Shamine cites multiple studies that show that if you look at how teams operate, the number one thing that determines the productivity of team is this, the overall happiness level of that team. They did studies where within teams and corporations bring in an actor. Nobody knew that this person was an actor, but the actor's job in a team was to bring coffee for everyone, compliment people, crack a joke or laugh, just like really little things that elevate happiness. Those teams did the best. And Shamine said happiness is the only thing that correlates with the performance of a team or rather the overall level of happiness in a team. I call this principle blissipline. It is the discipline of ensuring that you have bliss in your life. Now this does not mean fake optimism. There are going to be moments when you might be experiencing a great loss when your health might be off and it's going to drop your happiness. Bliscipline is how fast you can bounce back, how fast you can see the upside. And if you can do that and keep yourself in that state and emanate it to the people around you, your teams do better, your work becomes better.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite poems of all time. It was written roughly around 1880 and the poem goes like this. I was early thought to work as well as play. My life has been one long happy holiday full of work full of play and God was good to me every day. Think about that poem. It sounds like a guy who led a pretty relaxed happy life. But that's not the man who wrote the poem. The man who wrote that poem is John D. Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller in 1880 was the richest man who lived. the richest man who ever lived until recently until Elon literally wrote a poem about his great secret. And in that poem, he mentioned the word happiness multiple times. So let that sink in. Happiness is a tool for wealth. It is a tool for success. It is a tool, we know this, for health. So if you're working as a founder and you're miserable, you're basically making life hard for yourself. If you hate your job, you're never going to succeed at it. Find what you love and ensure that your happiness is protected. That is the essence of the term blissipline. Write it down on your mirror. Put it as a screen saver. Remember discipline. I'll be creating a video shortly on the science of blissipline in organizations and I'll share with you some tips to bring discipline into yourself and the close people you work with.

So, stay with me because what I'm going to do now is give you a recap of the nine principles and tell you where you can learn more and go deeper. The first is tolerate pain. The second principle is know your why. The third principle, can you guess? Do you remember it is stay in the zone of vision. The fourth principle is leverage upside down thinking not fearbased thinking. Principle number five is failure is the curriculum. Principle number six is the inner game is greater than the outer game. Number seven, learn the importance of optimizing consciousness. There's a video on this called the seven sacred states which you will be able to watch on this channel. So, click follow. Principle number eight is multitasking rules. If you are drawn to it, it doesn't mean you're distractable. It could be your way off work. Embrace it. And principle number nine, and another video is coming up on this principle, is practice discipline just like John D. Rockefeller.

So, I hope you found these rules useful. I hope you find this video useful. I go deep into this and all of these principles in my book, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. That book in 2017 became the number one book in the world on Amazon for 5 days. It made me briefly the number two author globally in the world. And there's a reason for that. That book is written in a really candid, funny way with incredible stories from many of these personalities. I go deeper with many of these incredible, wonderful people that I was able to spend time with and I share their lessons and I hope you enjoy it. Go check it out. I'd love to know which principle landed with you most. And what was your takeaway? Are there any principles here that you really have been applying in your business? Leave a comment. I'd really love and I know other commenters as well would really love to see what you're applying in your life and how it's working for you.